The adventures of Gary and Carolyn living aboard and continuously cruising the uk canals and rivers on narrowboat Inca

Wednesday, 3 December 2014

Leaky locks !!!!

Not that we travel during the hours of darkness but the 3 locks below Cowroast on The Grand union canal now have a restriction on them due to water loss.

Surely if you are going up hill and you are being told to leave the lock empty that is wasting water as you have to empty the lock after leaving it. Each lock holds 53,000 gallons of water (240,000 litres) so what a lot of waste that is. It seems that where ever there is a house or an ex lock keepers cottage next to a lock there is a sign to say leave the lock empty. Apparently its to do with damp getting into the properties ,so maybe it would make more sense to damp-proof the houses. Anyway if you buy a property next to a water course you have to expect a bit of damp .

As we descended the locks look what we found Um , Leaky gates that could be a cause of water loss …

Oh look .. A great big hole in the lock wall. Another possible cause of water loss.

Look !!! Even a bigger hole in the lock wall….

I have checked all the stoppages and can only find a one day stoppage on the 17th of December for one of the locks in question. Maybe they are going to get some quick drying cement and a few new bricks just to do a temporary repair and to stop the damage getting any worse which would be a start, but i doubt it…I'm sure there are more serious reasons for the water losses , and i expect the fix will not be a cheap one.